New graduation and dropout rates released for the 2008-09 school year are showing unusual dips and climbs from the previous year at a couple of San Gabriel Valley and Whittier districts.

But, state officials say, those changes may be due to the fact that this is the first year the rates were calculated using the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS), which tracks individual student enrollment history and achievement data over time.

As such, the Norwalk-La Mirada, West Covina and Monrovia unified school districts saw the number of dropouts jump significantly in 2008-09 from the 2007-08 school year – and, in turn, their graduation rates took a serious tumble.

“We have actually seen our graduation rate move up over the years,” said West Covina Unified Superintendent Lilliam Leis-Castillo.

“But now that this information has come out this way, now we’re all scrambling to find out if the data is accurate, or if there is a missing piece that we need to correct.”

According to state figures, WCUSD’s dropout rate skyrocketed from 9.2 percent in 2007-08 to 35.6 percent in 2008-09. In turn, the district’s graduation rate fell to 87.8 percent in 08-09 from 98.2 the previous year.

“We have a California Virtual Academy, which has grown leaps and bounds over the years. And they’ve said they don’t think the state’s information is accurate. They feel there’s some cleaning up to do,” Leis-Castillo said.

“At first, when the state came out with CALPADS, it sounded great to be able to have this kind of data system,” she said.

“But for it to work, we have to get over these kinks and make sure what’s being reported is accurate and being updated regularly.”

Statewide, about 70 percent of public school students graduated from high school in 2008-09, up from 68.5 percent the previous year.

The four-year statewide dropout rate also climbed, from 18.9 percent in 2007-08 to 21.7 percent the following year.

State officials said caution should be used when analyzing this first-year data through CALPADS, but maintained that the system helps accurately track students over time.

“There are a number of issues involved,” said Kerik Ashley, director of the state Department of Education’s data management division.

“There were issues with the system itself, which have been worked out. But it’s built to allow every school to continue to use their own student information system to report the data,” Ashley said. “And some just work better with this system than others.

“These rates are as accurate as aggregate formulas can be,” Ashley said. “But you may see some fluctuation in this data.”

Most San Gabriel Valley and Whittier area districts saw minor fluctuations of between 1 and 3 percentage points in the 08-09 rates released last week.

In the San Gabriel Valley area, state figures showed the Baldwin Park Unified School District had the lowest 2008-09 graduation rate at 55.6 percent, while WCUSD had the highest dropout rate at 35.6 percent.

Four unified districts – Monrovia, Bassett, West Covina and El Monte – saw 2008-09 graduation rates between 81 percent and about 88 percent, followed by the Hacienda-La Puente Unified district at 72.5 percent.

In the Whittier area, the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District had the lowest graduation rate in 2008-09 at 76.5 percent, down from 90.8 the previous year.

By contrast, the 2008-09 graduation rate at the nearby El Rancho Unified School District in Pico Rivera was 90.2 percent, and 91.1 percent at the Whittier Union High School District.

NLMUSD also had the highest dropout rate at 24.2 percent, rising dramatically from only 5.8 percent in 2007-08.

But, according to David Seale, NLMUSD’s director of technology services, the “broken” nature of CALPADS was just one factor for the inaccurate state figures.

First, the district switched to a new student information system that staffers are still being trained on.

“The learning curve for all of us is tremendous,” Seale said. “At the same time, the state’s transition to CALPADS is still so broken that it takes hours to process the least bit of information.”

Plus, the state uses dozens of “exit” codes to identify dropouts, and sometimes errors are made at new schools, where officials either put in the wrong student identification number or assign a new one – and that makes it look like the student dropped out from a previous school.

Also, said NLMUSD Superintendent Ruth Perez, the graduation and dropout rate data released last week is for 2008-09 – and that means officials have to search back two years to make sure it’s correct.

“But when you have such a differential like that from one year to the next, you know something went wrong,” Perez said.

Graduation and dropout rates for every school district can be found online using the Dataquest feature at www.cde.ca.gov

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.